Ethiopia's most popular pop singer, Teddy Afro, has pleaded not guilty to causing the death of a young man in a hit and run incident 18 months ago.

Thousands of young people mounted an impromptu protest after the High Court hearing, running through the streets, shouting, "Teddy is innocent".

Unauthorised demonstrations are almost unheard of in Ethiopia and there was a heavy paramilitary police presence.

At a previous hearing, the noise of his fans almost drowned out proceedings.

This time the case was moved to a building at the back of the court area, well away from the crowd.

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The John S. Knight Fellowships for Professional Journalists at Stanford University announced in a press release yesterday that it awarded its coveted fellowships for the 2008-2009 academic year to nine international journalists including Ethiopian journalist Abebe Gellaw. The international fellows will join 12 U.S. journalists, who will be announced in May 2008.

Exiled journalist and founder editor of Addisvoice.com, Abebe Gellaw, is the first Ethiopian journalist to win the prestigious media fellowship. Stanford has also designated Abebe the 2008-2009 Yahoo International Fellow, the third journalist to receive the honour.

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